Good Enough to Eat Read online

  Table of Contents

  Epigraph

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  MASHED POTATOES

  CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA FROSTING

  MACARONI AND CHEESE

  MEAT LOAF

  PANCAKES

  RISOTTO

  CHICKEN SOUP

  TURKEY TETRAZZINI

  BANANA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE FROSTING

  BRISKET

  PEANUT BUTTER

  SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS

  CHILI

  APPLE PIE

  TOMATO SOUP AND GRILLED CHEESE

  FRIED CHICKEN

  CORNED BEEF HASH

  CREAMED SPINACH

  CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

  BACON

  STUFFING

  CHEESEBURGERS

  FROM MELANIE’S RECIPE FILES

  “Stacey Ballis knows her readers like books smart and funny—and she always delivers.”

  —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Matzo Ball Heiress

  PRAISE FOR

  Good Enough to Eat

  “Good Enough to Eat is like a perfect dish of macaroni and cheese—rich, warm, nuanced, and delicious. And like any great comfort food, Stacey Ballis’s new book is absolutely satisfying.”

  —Jen Lancaster, New York Times bestselling author of Such a Pretty Fat

  “Witty and tender, brash and seriously clever, Stacey Ballis’s characters are our friends, our neighbors or, in some cases, that sardonic colleague the next cubicle over . . . Her storytelling will have you alternately turning pages and calling your friends urging them to come along for the ride. And in Stacey Ballis’s talented hands, oh what a wonderful ride it is.”

  —Elizabeth Flock, New York Times bestselling author of Me & Emma

  “A toothsome meal of moments, gorgeously written, in warmth and with keen observation, Good Enough to Eat is about so much more than the magic of food; it’s about the magic of life. Pardon the cliché, but you’ll devour it and wish there was more to savor.”

  —Stephanie Klein, author of Straight Up and Dirty and Moose: A Memoir

  The Spinster Sisters

  “Readers will be rooting for Ballis’s smart, snappy heroines.”

  —Booklist

  “Stacey Ballis provides a wonderful, deep family drama.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “A laugh-out-loud hoot of a book. Jodi and Jill are amazing characters. They are challenged by balancing their business lives with style, charm, and grace. A must-read.”

  —A Romance Review

  “Ballis addresses the dilemmas of empowered, independent women who are proud of their single status, but also looking hopefully toward settling down with someone special with grace and eloquence.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “With good-natured insight, this is an honest look at family, personal, and business relationships and how women deal with their need for independence and companionship. Strong, caring main characters are compassionate and well developed, giving each a convincing voice . . . For a terrific treat, pick up a copy of The Spinster Sisters.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  Room for Improvement

  “Self-proclaimed home improvement junkie and author Ballis has written a laugh-out-loud novel that will appeal to HGTV devotees as well as those who like their chick lit on the sexy side.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  “This book is frequently laugh-out-loud funny.”

  —Romantic Times

  Sleeping Over

  “Ballis presents a refreshingly realistic approach to relationships and the things that test (and often break) them. Ballis’s sophomore effort will please readers who want something more than fairy-tale romance.”

  —Booklist

  “Sleeping Over is a snappy tale of love lost, gained, revamped, rehashed, and true friendship through thick and thin . . . a remarkable chick lit novel . . . Don’t let this entertaining tale pass you by.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Fans of relationship dramas will appreciate this fine, character-driven tale.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Sleeping Over will have you laughing, crying, and planning your next girls’ night out. This is the first novel I have read by Stacey Ballis, but I guarantee it won’t be the last!”

  —Romance Reader at Heart

  “This engaging story delivers everything you ask from a great read: it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you feel. Sleeping Over gets my highest recommendation.”

  —Romance Divas

  Inappropriate Men

  “Ballis’s debut is a witty tale of a thirtysomething who unexpectedly has to start the search for love all over again.”

  —Booklist

  “Cheekily comic . . . Sidney Stein is a heroine to cheer lustily for, because that is how she lives her life: in grand style, and refusing to settle.”

  —BookPage

  “Without a doubt, Inappropriate Men is one of the best books of 2004. Stacey Ballis has a way with words. Effortlessly, she makes them exciting and pulls the reader into the life of one of the most engaging characters ever created, Sidney Stein.”

  —A Romance Review

  “For an insider’s look at dating and relationships, with all the laughs and wit you could want, Inappropriate Men by Stacey Ballis is a wonderful choice for your reading pleasure.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  Berkley Books by Stacey Ballis

  ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

  THE SPINSTER SISTERS

  GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

  Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2010 by Stacey Ballis.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the aut
hor’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / September 2010

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ballis, Stacey.

  Good enough to eat / Stacey Ballis.—Berkley trade pbk. ed. p. cm.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-44295-1

  1. Businesswomen—Fiction. 2. Restaurateurs—Fiction. 3. Natural food restaurants—Fiction. 4. Life change events—Fiction. 5. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. 6. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

  PS3602.A624G66 2010

  813’.6—dc22

  2010018841

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  For Jen,

  whose friendship makes everything

  more delicious!

  For Bill,

  who makes me believe every day

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, my loving family: Mom, Dad, Deb, and Jonnie. None of this would be nearly as much fun without you around me.

  My wonderful agent and partner, Scott Mendel, for being not only such a terrific navigator on this journey but excellent company as well.

  My amazing friends (you know who you are and how much I love and treasure you), who are the best support system any girl could ask for and who are all blissfully good eaters . . . with extra props for the Uzes gang!

  Carey Peters, for your friendship and guidance, and for giving so freely of your wisdom during the writing of this book. You not only helped Melanie change her life; you helped me change mine.

  Everyone at Penguin/Berkley, especially Leslie Gelbman, Wendy McCurdy, and Melissa Broder.

  My friend and trainer, Gabe, for helping keep me healthy, however hard I may fight against it. (I still hate the f***ing squats. I’m not saying; I’m just saying.)

  My fantastic gaggle of girls—most especially Rachel, Sue, Denise, Tracey, Gina, Caprice, Laura, Liz, Stephanie, Serena, Ellen, Tracy, Margie, and Peggy—you guys keep me sane! (Or insane, as the case may be . . .)

  My NYC BFF, Penny, who showed up right when I needed her, for showing me that less is indeed more, that bringing beauty into your life every day is neither extraneous nor impossible, and that one is never finished finding old dear friends. (And that I can survive quite happily with half the number of occasional tables as previously assumed.)

  For Bill, an unexpected gift from the universe. I am so very, very lucky to know you and have you in my life.

  Last but definitely not least, the extraordinary Jen Lancaster, who is a daily blessing and an endless source of inspiration. Thank you for all the laughter and adventures and support. Wednesday nights will always belong to you. Team Stennifer rules!

  PROLOGUE

  The firm close of the door, despite not having been remotely slammed, nevertheless reverberates through the profound emptiness of my house. The sheer force of it pushes me down into a chair at the kitchen table, coffee and shards of pottery at the floor by my feet, the now-cold liquid soaking into my slippers. I wait for the front door to open again. I wait for the alarm clock to go off, waking me from this unreal dream. It is only when the sparkles appear before my eyes that I realize I’m listening so hard for one of these sounds that I have forgotten to breathe. Something vibrates near my arm, and I glance down at my BlackBerry, which is reminding me that I have a phone meeting scheduled with my nutritional counselor.

  How ironic.

  In the past two years I have lost about 145 pounds. Half my body weight.

  And twenty minutes ago, my husband of nearly ten years announced that he is leaving me.

  For a woman twice my size.

  Carey answers the phone on the second ring. “Hello?”

  I can’t even reply with a basic greeting. I launch directly into the information I need to impart. “He left. He’s in love with someone else. He’s in love with someone else and he left me.” The words flood out of my mouth, out into the phone, into the ether, the still air in the house crackling with the electric departure of my husband.

  “Hold on, hold on, slow down, Mel. Start at the beginning.” Carey’s voice is calm and assured, a tiny lifeline.

  I take a deep breath. “Andrew has just announced, in the most matter-of-fact way, that he is no longer in love with me, and no longer wants to be married to me, and is in love with someone else and wants to be with her. He doesn’t want to do any counseling, he knows his heart, he says. He says he’s sorry, that he knows it’s a blow, that he never meant to hurt me, but that all the changes I’ve been going through have made him realize what he wants and needs and it just isn’t me.” I rattle this off as if it is a series of recipe instructions. Sift dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in dry ingredients. Leave your wife of nearly ten years for your mistress. Tell her that she isn’t worth fighting for, that the marriage is permanently broken beyond repair, and the fact that she didn’t even notice anything was wrong is completely beside the point. Grab your suitcase and briefcase and tell her you’ll come back for your stuff tomorrow while she is at work.

  “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. I thought . . . Well, it’s just a shock. You’ve never given me any indication that things were bad at home.”

  “I wasn’t aware that things were bad at home. We don’t fight, never did. I mean, yes, the sex had sort of become minimal, but we’ve both been so busy and I’ve been so tired with getting the store open and on its feet and I just thought it was a phase. . . . It’s not like it’s been years or something, just a brief dry spell. Well. Apparently a dry spell for me—he’s clearly been getting plenty of it elsewhere!”

  “When did it happen?”

  “About twenty minutes ago.”

  “Wow. Do you think, I mean, that’s very recent, maybe it’s just in the heat of the moment?”

  I laugh, brittle and coppery tasting. “There was no heat. There wasn’t a fight, this wasn’t some passionate blow-up. He got up. He showered, he got dressed, he made the coffee, and then he announced that he has been seeing someone else for a while now, and he is in love with her and he knows that I’ll eventually understand and that he hopes someday we’ll be friends. And I yelled and threw a coffee cup at him, and he stood there and took it and apologized and grabbed a suitcase out of the front closet that he had apparently packed up while I was in the shower or something, and headed out the door.”

  “I can’t even imagine.”

  “Neither can I. It’s like it didn’t happen. It’s like I’m in some weird dream, and I’m going to wake up any minute . . . and . . . I . . .” My breath seems lodged in my throat. I know I’m breathing but I can’t feel it in my lungs. I start making some gurgling choking noises.

  “Mel? MEL! Are you okay?”

  “I . . . can’t . . .”

  “Breathe, honey, just slow, deep breaths. Slow, now. You’re probably going into some sort of shock.”

  “Mmm hmmm.” Slow. Breathing. I shake my head side to side, feeling the tears start, impossibly hot, stinging my skin, trying to force the air past the stone in my throat.

  “That’s it, Mel. Now, I want you to yell. Loud. Let it out.”

  “No, I can’t, I . . .” I sound like I swallowed a fistful of peanut butter.

  “Trust me. I know you’re trying to be strong, but you can’t breathe because your bravery is in the way. You have to get it out. Yell. Loud as you can, just . . .”

  Suddenly an air-raid siren goes off, shocking me. Shocking especially since it appears to have generated in my chest and is coming out of my mouth. And for some reason, the movie The Princess Bride pops into my mind. The sound of ultimate suffering. I’m suddenly farm-boy-turned-pirate Westley, paralyzed by pain as my one true love goes off to marry someone else. And who has more cause to make the sound of ultimate suffering? Through the din I can hear Carey on the phone, offering gentle encour
agement, telling me to get it out. The blast dwindles as my lungs empty, and I begin to breathe again.

  “That was good, kiddo, really good,” Carey says. “Now, I want you to give me Kai’s number and I’m going to call him and send him to your house.”

  “Oh, no, I don’t want to see anyone. At least Andrew was good enough to drop this bomb on my day off, I . . .”

  “Mel, I’m not asking. You should not be alone right now. Even if you’re just going to go get in bed and sleep all day, someone should be there. If you don’t want it to be Kai, then give me someone else’s number, but since I can’t come myself, I’m sending someone to be with you.” Carey is in Los Angeles. And frankly, I think if I don’t put her in touch with Kai, she is likely to jump on a plane.

  I rattle off the number.

  “Good. I’m going to put you on hold, and call Kai, and then I’m going to come right back and stay on the phone with you till he gets there, okay?”